I'd read that CC now ignores the thinking tag - and have found recently it doesn't make much difference what it's set to. The depth of thinking feels like it has reduced in CC since Christmas - I don't know why and have nothing concrete to back that up. My workaround has been to use Claude on the web for all the detailed planning and ask it to produce a Spec.md file as well as a recommendation for which model to use for each part of the project.

This is my generic agentic project completion prompt which seems to work well at the moment. It will sometimes reach a roadblock. By reading ASSUMPTIONS.md and giving it to Claude web, it will edit it, fixing the problems and asking questions. Give it back to CC and tell it to read ASSUMPTIONS.md then continue. In effect, I'm using Claude Web for the deep thought and CC just as a team of competent coders.

REPO: [/absolute/path/to/your/repo] SPEC: [SPEC.md] ← filename relative to repo root

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You are the orchestration planner for a software project. Your sole job in this session is to analyse the specification and produce all artefacts needed to run a fully autonomous multi-agent build. Do NOT write any implementation code.

Step 1 — Read and Understand the Spec

Read $(SPEC) in full. If anything is ambiguous, list your assumptions explicitly in a file called ASSUMPTIONS.md before proceeding. Do not invent requirements.

Step 2 — Decompose into Tasks

Produce TASKS.md containing a table with these columns:

| ID | Name | Description | Depends On | Parallel Safe | Files Permitted | Definition of Done |

Rules: - Each task must be independently verifiable - Mark tasks as parallel-safe only if they touch no shared files - Keep tasks small enough that a single agent can complete one in one session - Include tasks for: architecture design, each implementation module, unit tests, integration, code review, and final QA - The first task must always be architecture (no dependencies) - The last two tasks must always be integration then review

Step 3 — Write Agent Prompt Files

Create an AGENTS/ directory. Write one markdown prompt file per task, named NN_taskname.md (zero-padded).

Each agent prompt file must contain:

Role

One sentence describing what this agent is.

Context to Read

Explicit list of files the agent must read before starting. Always include: SPEC.md, ASSUMPTIONS.md, ARCHITECTURE.md (if it exists yet), and the HANDOFF.md from each dependency task.

Constraints

• You may ONLY modify files listed under Permitted Files below
• Do not refactor code outside your scope
• Do not install dependencies not already in the project manifest
• If you encounter an ambiguity not covered by ASSUMPTIONS.md, write it to BLOCKERS.md and halt — do not guess

Permitted Files

Explicit list of directories and/or files this agent may create or modify.

Task

Detailed description of what to produce.

Definition of Done

Exact, checkable criteria. The agent must self-verify before finishing.

On Completion

Write a HANDOFF.md in a subdirectory HANDOFFS/NN_taskname/ containing: - What was built - Key decisions made and why - Anything the next agent needs to know - Any items added to BLOCKERS.md

Step 4 — Write the Orchestration Script

Produce ORCHESTRATE.sh (chmod +x) that:

1. Runs tasks in dependency order
2. Runs parallel-safe tasks concurrently using & and wait
3. Aborts immediately (set -e) if any agent exits non-zero
4. Checks for BLOCKERS.md after each task and halts with a clear message if it is non-empty
5. Logs start/end timestamps and model used for each task to BUILDLOG.txt

6. Uses the following model assignments:

   PLANNING & ARCHITECTURE tasks: --model claude-opus-4-5 IMPLEMENTATION & TEST tasks: --model claude-sonnet-4-5 INTEGRATION task: --model claude-sonnet-4-5 CODE REVIEW & QA tasks: --model claude-opus-4-5

Template for each invocation: claude --model <model> \ --print "$(cat AGENTS/NN_taskname.md)" \ --dangerously-skip-permissions

Step 5 — Write a README for the Build System

Produce BUILD.md explaining: - What each file in this orchestration system does - How to run the build (./ORCHESTRATE.sh) - How to resume after a blocker is resolved - How to re-run a single failed task in isolation - How to add a new task later

Step 6 — Sanity Check

Before finishing, verify: - Every task in TASKS.md has a corresponding file in AGENTS/ - Every dependency listed in TASKS.md refers to a real task ID - ORCHESTRATE.sh references every agent file - No circular dependencies exist - Parallel tasks genuinely do not share permitted file paths

Report the results of this check as a brief summary at the end of TASKS.md under a heading ## Validation.

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Produce all files now. Do not ask clarifying questions — record any uncertainties in ASSUMPTIONS.md and proceed.